Creator content was built to influence people. Now AI is watching too.

Off the back of the Digital Shelf Future Forum and a recent conversation with Kate Musgrove, Managing Director APAC at Bazaarvoice (watch out for the podcast dropping soon), it’s become increasingly clear just how quickly the creator landscape is evolving.

Creator content has historically been built for people – to stop the scroll, create desire, demonstrate products and influence purchase. But it now has another audience: AI.

Kate described creator content and UGC as increasingly taking on a dual role. It still needs to inspire and build trust with shoppers, but it can also help AI understand products - the associated attributes, use cases and commonly asked questions.

And we’re already seeing this play out within Meta. Earlier this year, Meta launched Meta AI Shopping, enabling shoppers to search and compare products from across the web and Facebook Marketplace. Those experiences draw on brand storytelling, creator and community content already active across Meta’s apps to help inform what products and ideas it surfaces.

Then, on 8 September 2026, Meta launched Muse, its new personal AI agent. Muse goes a step further. Rather than simply helping people discover and consider products, it can act on their behalf – navigating websites, filling out forms, booking travel and even completing shopping purchases with the user’s approval. Within days of launch, Muse had recorded more than 730,000 US downloads, according to Sensor Tower.

With Meta AI Shopping already in the hands of millions and Muse growing rapidly, rich creator and community content is becoming an increasingly important source of product context that AI can draw on to understand products and make better recommendations.

But the Muse Spark model isn’t the only LLM leveraging creator content as signals and context.

There is growing evidence that social and creator content are becoming part of the AI discovery layer, although the extent to which it is cited varies considerably depending on the AI platform and the category.

Tinuiti’s Q3 2026 citation research found that most major AI platforms were at or near all-time highs for the share of citations coming from social media. In apparel specifically, social sources accounted for 14% of AI citations, whilst for electronics it was 13%. Google is also increasingly drawing on its own ecosystem, with Tinuiti calling out YouTube content as a key source for AI Mode citations.

But not all platforms leverage creator content in the same way – and that’s where it gets interesting.

Meta has the advantage of sitting on the social graph, allowing its shopping experiences to draw on creators, communities and interests people already engage with - putting this content at the heart of recommendations.

Google brings a different advantage. Search is increasingly surfacing original and first-hand perspectives, while YouTube gives it access to a huge body of detailed creator content as one of many sources.

ChatGPT takes a different route again, drawing on merchant product data, publicly available product information and other retail sources. Creator content may therefore have a less direct path into recommendations unless it is publicly accessible and discoverable on the web.

What all of this reinforces is, that the implication for brands is that creator strategy can’t just be about social performance anymore. Who you partner with, what they say about your products, where that content lives and how discoverable it is, beyond the original post, increasingly matters for AI visibility too.

Most creator content today is built for human attention and shoppertainment. It needs to feel authentic, fit the creator’s audience, communicate the brand story and drive engagement or conversion – while giving creators enough freedom to connect in their own way. AI discovery asks something else of that content.

Imagine a shopper asking an AI assistant: What’s the best pram for a newborn if I live in an apartment, drive a small car and want to use the pram for jogging?

A beautifully shot creator video saying a pram is “amazing” might influence someone because they trust the creator and identify with their lifestyle, but it offers little information for an LLM trying to answer that question.

A creator explaining how easily the pram folds, whether it fits in their hatchback, how easy it is to carry upstairs, how it performs when running and the limitations creates a much richer source of information.

That’s the shift brands need to contend with. Creator partnerships and briefs need to balance engaging content with enough specificity, context and first-hand experience to become useful within AI-led discovery.

It also raises the bar for creator partnerships. If creators are going to speak authentically about attributes, trade-offs and use cases, they need deeper product knowledge and experience rather than simply receiving a brief and producing an asset.

Whilst the brief and partnering approach may need to evolve, so too may the mix of creators a brand engages.

Creators with sizeable followings still bring reach, social proof and cultural relevance. But for highly specific shopper questions, a smaller creator with deep first-hand experience using the product may provide richer material for AI to draw on.

For a running pram, that might be a parent who regularly reviews running gear. For skincare, someone who consistently creates detailed content around a particular skin type or concern.

That changes the portfolio. Brands may still need creators who provide scale, but also specialists with deep category expertise, strong product demonstration skills and niche voices able to provide rich product context.

The goal isn’t ten creators producing variations of the same campaign asset. It is a network of voices collectively building a more complete picture of the product.

This also connects back to something Kate raised in our conversation: treating creator and UGC content as an ongoing content supply chain, rather than something switched on only around campaigns and NPD.

The next era of creator strategy won’t just be about influencing people – it will be about creating content rich enough to influence the AI shaping their choices too.

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🚫 Amazon has blocked Meta’s new Muse AI agent from shopping on Amazon.com, arguing that the agent violates its Conditions of Use and doesn’t adequately identify itself when browsing on behalf of shoppers. The move highlights a growing tension in agentic commerce: who gets to control the customer relationship when an AI agent sits between the shopper and the retailer? Amazon has its own AI shopping capabilities and is making it clear that third-party agents won’t automatically get access to its ecosystem. For Walmart, that creates a natural advantage, with the retailer taking a far more open approach to working with external agents. As more AI agents begin searching, comparing and purchasing on our behalf, agent access, identification and platform permissions are quickly becoming the next battleground in commerce.

🤖 Google has rolled out another wave of agentic commerce updates, spanning discovery, product data and checkout. AI performance insights are now available to Australian businesses through Merchant Center, giving retailers visibility into how their brands and products are appearing across AI Mode and AI Overviews. Google is also expanding Universal Commerce Protocol capabilities, including cart transfer and enhanced checkout testing, with the latest functionality expected to reach Australia in early 2027. And product feeds are becoming richer. Google says conversational attributes submitted by lululemon were incorporated into relevant AI Mode product recommendations 50% of the time during testing - another sign that the information brands feed into commerce platforms will increasingly influence what AI recommends. The agentic shelf is quickly becoming something brands can measure, optimise and transact through - not simply prepare for.

🛍️ Nine has launched Shop Today, and in some ways it feels like TV shopping has gone full circle. The formula is familiar - trusted presenters showcase products and drive purchase - but it’s been rebuilt for a digital world. Products featured on the Today show can now become shoppable experiences across nine.com.au, 9Now, YouTube and social, allowing viewers to move from content to commerce across multiple channels. Nine will generate revenue through a combination of affiliate commissions and paid brand integrations, making traditional broadcast content increasingly measurable and shoppable.

🤳 TikTok is bringing AI-assisted shopping directly into ads. In a recent Retail Disrupted podcast, TikTok’s Paul Mears said the platform is integrating with UCP and ACP commerce protocols. The vision: spot a product in an ad, tap prompts like “check this colour” or “check stock”, open an AI shop assistant to refine the choice, then complete a native checkout, all without leaving the ad experience. It’s another sign of the funnel collapsing: discovery, consideration, product advice and purchase increasingly happening within a single media experience.

I’m an advisor, trainer and thought leader with 25+ years’ experience across digital, marketing, loyalty and commerce, working with consumer, FMCG and retail brands. I’m also the host of Unpacking the Digital Shelf – APAC Edition and have been recognised as a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert (2026), and Top 20 CMO (2018).

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